


wheels on ice

by js71, m3owww



Series: dancing alone--you're never alone [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alix Kubdel has ADHD, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Demiromantic Demisexual Alix Kubdel, Gen, Miraculous Holder Nathaniel Kurtzberg, Miraculous Team, Monkey Lê Chiến Kim | Roi Singe, Pansexual Nathaniel Kurtzberg, Rabbit Alix Kubdel | Bunnyx, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-28
Updated: 2020-11-28
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:00:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27754234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/js71/pseuds/js71, https://archiveofourown.org/users/m3owww/pseuds/m3owww
Summary: It was while she was doing that, running directly up a wall and thinking of ten billion different things, that lightning struck.Or the story where Nathaniel can't talk to his crush, Climatika returns and tries to kill Alix because she got in the way, and Kim finally gets that screaming slingshot monkey toy that he's always wanted.
Relationships: Alix Kubdel & Nathaniel Kurtzberg
Series: dancing alone--you're never alone [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2030194
Comments: 15
Kudos: 23





	wheels on ice

**Author's Note:**

> For my aunt; miss you, crazy lady. I guess today is the first day of the rest of my life.  
> \-- jess

Nathaniel didn’t know how Alix had gotten into the museum with rollerblades but was willing to bet it had to do something with the lack of a helmet and all protective gear but knee pads and wrist guards. No matter how she’d managed it, she had managed it. He resigned himself to filing that particular mystery away for another day, just as Alix skidded to a stop beside him, tumbling onto the bench and knocking into his shoulder.

He’d grown up with Alix, which made it easy to know when she was going to run into you, so he did manage to yank his pencil away before Alix collided with him. His sketch was untouched. She was probably going to run into him again, so he slipped his pencil into his pocket, closing his sketchbook, holding it on his lap. Alix had one of those grins on, one that said she had something stupid to say and knew it and was thrilled about it.

“You know who’s here?” She whispered--as much as she ever whispered, which meant it was about half as loud as a usual speaking tone. “Marc! That kid that you have a crush on!”

Thank the stars that other people were around because otherwise Nathaniel would have had two kwami’s to deal with, on top of Alix. For someone who didn’t date, she was really into other people’s dating habits. Or, lack thereof.

(Fluff thought it was the best thing ever. Nathaniel’s own kwami was not so into dating, thank the stars. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to survive.)

“Shut up!” Nathaniel hissed sharply, and Alix gave him a smirk that he knew. It was that look she’d given him and Rose after Chloé had crossed a line when they’d been eleven. Five minutes later, Chloé’s locker was trashed, with no evidence as to who had done it. It was the smirk that said she knew what she could do, and was willing to do it.

Alix leaned back on the bench, hands supporting her weight, the smirk still in place, even as she tipped her head ever so slightly to the right. “Don’t look, but the cute boy just entered.”

“Shut. Up.” Nathaniel hissed again, quieter and sharper, ducking his head and very pointedly not looking at Marc, who had a strict-looking older woman leading him through the halls, silver bun and pencil skirt and heels and glasses with the beaded string. He didn’t look too pleased to be in the art section, and Nathaniel was definitely not noticing how Marc was texting on his phone, except he never paused, meaning that he was writing something down digitally--

Alix was smirking at him. A new smirk, but she was still smirking as she informed him, “You’re _so_ gay.”

He ducked his head, lightly smacking her shoulder with his sketchbook. She laughed, shoving him back, grabbing his arm by the elbow before he could fall off the edge of the bench.

“Go talk to him!”

“I can’t!”

She wrinkled her expression, into one that he knew, the one that had been labelled as _You Dumbass_ by Kim’s chicken-scratch in his old sketchbook. “Is this some of that allo bullshit me and Adrien have been bonding over? The part where you’re crushing and can’t get any words out?”

“It’s not bullshit!”

“You cursed!” Alix just about shrieked in delight, earning half a dozen glares as she did, flying to her feet and grabbing his hand, dragging him up, his book left on the bench. She spun in a circle on the inner edges of her skates, making him hold up one of her hands above her head like a dancer, before she collapsed onto him, laughing. Nathaniel was laughing too, forgetting for, at least a little while, about the other people in the room, and his crush, and just enjoying the moment.

It didn’t last.

“Ah-hem.”

Crap. He straightened, turning around to find the stiff lady that Marc was trailing, looking directly at him. She was on heels, making their eyes level. Wait. Was Marc shorter than Alix?

Not important.

What was also not important was the way that Marc slid his phone into his pocket, and was watching him and Alix from a step behind and to the side of the lady. He had a shoulder bag on, one that Nathaniel had seen a lot, and considered dropping notes into, but had never been brave enough to even admit to considering it. But Nathaniel noticed it anyway, just like he noticed how Marc had painted his nails black again, and how the lady was glaring at him and Alix, which was more important at the moment.

“This is a museum,” she began, and Alix, who’d heard the museum lecture more than any of the rest of their class had--and they’d heard it a lot, near-monthly visits to Alix’s place and all--was already shoving Nathaniel’s sketchbook into his backpack, zipping it up. She grabbed him by the elbow in both hands, rolling backwards, away from the lady, dragging Nathaniel with her. She’d somehow angled it so that they were backing up towards Marc, and Nathaniel had never before been so glad that he had bangs because his face was doing _something_.

“We know, thank you, okay, bye!” She rattled off, letting go of Nathaniel, spinning around, and grabbing onto both boys via their sleeves, all in one fluid motion, taking off towards the exit, calling over her shoulder. “We’re kidnapping Marc!”

“What?!” Marc shouted, but he ran without being encouraged when Alix let go of his sleeve. He also didn’t blink when she jumped off the ground and landed on the stair's railing, riding down it without a helmet. Nathaniel had seen the many tries, at least a thousand of them that it had taken her to get the trick nailed down, during late-night sleepovers and early morning breakfasts. Marc had never seen it before, but he didn’t do another other than look very, _very_ concerned.

“Whoo!” Alix called, jumping off the end of the railing and landing, spinning low, one hand sweeping across the ground as she went, stopping with no warning with a fist in the air like those superhero poses they’d had to do when they covered mental health that had been anxiety-inducing and embarrassing. 

Nathaniel stuck to jumping over the last six or seven stairs, backpack thumping against his shoulders when he landed. Marc yelped, jumping down the last three and stumbling on his landing. Nathaniel grabbed him by the arm, hauling him up, and they booked it for the exit, breaking into the sunlight, and not stopping until they were sure they’d lost anyone who might have followed them.

Alix glided along the sidewalk, keeping pace with the boys easily despite her earlier stunts, and Nathaniel knew she was incredibly pleased with herself. She’d call what she’d created an impromptu date--she’d set her brother up on one with Alya’s big sister in a similar manner only a few weeks before... their class had kind of spied on the pair.

That was a normal sibling thing, right?

“That was awesome.” She said, laughter in her voice, and skated ahead, turning around and moving backwards so she was facing both boys as they went, hands gesturing animatedly, talking about whatever nonsense she came up with.

It took a while for Nathaniel to realize exactly what she was so pleased about.

He was holding hands with Marc. Upon realizing that, he almost froze, his brain failing to process exactly what was going on, but his body was still moving. There had to be a margin of hesitation in his actions, proven by how Marc glanced down at their hands, then met his eyes before quickly turning away. He didn’t pull his hand away, however, and Nathaniel grinned, lifting his chin and squinting against the sunlight as they rounded a corner.

A shadow crossed the sun, and it took only a moment for Nathaniel to put the details of the new street together. The drop in temperature, the lack of traffic exiting, the shadow across the sun.

And then there was a snap-boom, and he dove away, grabbing Marc around the shoulders, pulling them both to the street, lighting sending his heart and brain into overdrive, Marc shaking under his hands. The two of them scrambled, Nathaniel pulling Marc up and running, no, sliding across the street, as it turned to ice under their runners.

Marc let out a yelp, nearly falling on his face, and Nathaniel grabbed him around the back of the shoulders, using their momentum to slide the rest of the way, both of them crashing into an alleyway, the ground continuing to be slick, difficult, ice. They both crashed to the ground, narrowly protecting themselves from landing badly, and Nathaniel twisted, moving to sit up, only for the exit to be frozen over in a sheen of ice. 

“No!” Nathaniel whisper-shouted, voice catching and sounding hoarse. He dropped his backpack on the ground, and scrambled to the wall, fingers clawing at the nearly perfectly-clear ice. He could feel it thicken under his hands, and he let out an uncharacteristic shout, slamming a hand against the ice, watching as Alix nearly got hit again, she didn’t have the time nor the space to transform, but then King Monkey sent her sliding down the ice and their eyes met, and Nathaniel knew that he had to have been seen, but he also knew that Climatika was right there and that she was the current focus point.

Dammit. 

* * *

“Shit!” Alix screamed, ice taking any hope of balancing away from her. Her arms flung up, torso twisting, as she tried to keep her balance, frantically fighting a hopeless battle. She landed hard on her side, the ice burning on her fingers, the cold eating through her shirt, biting at her skin, lungs trembling as they tried to get air back into them.

She only had the time to sit up, not even stand, before a crackle of lighting, and a cackle of laughter sent her heart rate soaring. A flash of white hit the car beside her, the metal crumpling and sizzling. Glass shattered, scattering across her knees and skates, sparkling on the ice that covered the sidewalk and street.

Alix scrambled back, wheels spinning uselessly, her back hitting the wall, the surprise making her breath catch.

“Where’s Little-Miss-Rollerblades?” Climatika called, and Alix could almost hear--no, she could hear the smirk in the villain’s voice. She wasn’t sure what she’d done to piss off the Akuma this time around, but she also knew she hadn’t caused it. She’d just skated right into a gust of wind, and been the one person who’d actually been able to stand against it, despite wearing wheels. Then again, Nathaniel had almost been hit by lightning.

Fluff peeked out at Alix, upside down from her hiding spot in her hair. One ear was curiously cocked to the side, and Alix glanced that way, already scrambling before she’d registered what was there. It didn’t go well, as she slipped and fell while trying to get on her feet, falling on her elbows and knees, the plastic of her wrist guards clicking against the ice. Rollerblades were not made for ice. Sure, they worked in a similar way to hockey skates, but they weren’t made for ice.

However, Alix was stubborn and was pretty sure that she was surviving out of pure spite at this point, and she got about a car and a half away from where she’d been before someone grabbed her by the elbow, as she nearly face-planted again. They dragged her around, switching places with her, and then gave her a shove, sending her sliding across the ice-covered sidewalk on her knees, fast and hard.

Alix caught the edge of an alleyway with one hand, fingertips tearing against the rough brick, and swung herself into another ice-slick street-thing. She used the wall to drag herself along towards the edge of the ice. Fluff settled on her shoulder as she scrambled to her feet, not entirely off the ice and nearly falling forwards onto her face, one hand swinging down to brush the ground. She grabbed her balance and held it tight, pushing off and skating hard towards the far end of the alley, grabbing her pocket watch, and shouting.

“Fluff, transform me!”

She felt Fluff dive into the pocket watch, felt the transformation start, rushing over her shoulders and arms, towards her hands, and paving towards her skates. She pushed harder, and flew out of the alley, jumping off the sidewalk, the skates vanishing as she soared through the air and rolled over her shoulder, skidding to a stop in a crouch, watch in one hand, umbrella on her back, and uniform fully on. And right there, coming over the rooftop, was Climatika, knocked backwards by King Monkey.

Bunnyx let out a shout and charged forwards, snapping her watch into her pocket and springing up. Her fist collided with Climatika’s jaw, sending the villain spinning away and crashing into a car on the side of the street. Bunnyx grabbed onto a lamppost, balancing on it in a crouch as she watched the villain recover with a margin of interest. King Monkey dropped down beside her, offering her a fist-tap, and she returned it, the backs of their knuckles tapping against each other without so much as a glance.

“Good work with the alley,” Bunnyx said thoughtfully, wrapping an arm around her legs, loose, thoughtful. Unconcerned about the villain in close proximity to her, and certainly within hearing range. They hadn’t stopped trying to protect their identities--they were a close-knit family, that much was for sure, even as unofficial as that was. Bunnyx wasn’t sure anyone really used sibling terms, beyond Rose, Alya and Ivan, two of whom were total sweethearts, and one of whom just liked siblings. But their group was a family. A random one, full of chaos and unique people and shared experiences, but a good one. And they were still protecting their identities.

But the glamours were kinda overkill. Hilarious overkill, but overkill nevertheless.

“Thanks,” King Monkey returned, with one of those smiles Bunnyx couldn’t name but knew with and without the mask. “Hey, she’s getting up--“

Bunnyx grabbed the lamppost with both hands, kicking her legs out and flipping backwards, swinging under and releasing, sending herself towards the villain, both feet catching Climatika in the chest, sending her flying away, in the general direction of the end of the street. Bunnyx brushed her hands off against each other, setting them on her hips and looking up at King Monkey, who jumped down, springing up to his full height, bouncing in place. He stretched his hands over his head, knuckles popping neatly, remarking that Climatika was aware again, and coming back.

Now that she wasn’t stunned--of course the villains didn’t stay stunned for longer than a few seconds at a time--Climatika was a rage of wind, lightning, and ice. Bunnyx found herself springing around the street, a section of her mind wondering how she’d use Burrow--she wasn’t actually going to use it, Fluff had lectured her enough, she was fifteen, not four--all the while wondering when King Monkey would use Uproar, because it was always fun to watch the reactions. It was like they forgot what his power did to theirs.

It was while she was doing that, running directly up a wall and thinking of ten billion different things, that lightning struck.

Bunnyx was a few steps up already, the lightning crashing through the stone below her, and she kicked off, hard, twisting through the air, fist reared back. Climatika’s umbrella snapped open, and wind tightened around Bunnyx, sending her flying back right into the building lighting had just hit. Bunnyx snarled furiously, pushing herself up, and drawing her own umbrella, shouting a few choice words at the bitch, just to get her attention, and ran forwards, weapon raised.

Climatika’s umbrella shut, and lightning reared. Bunnyx dove to the side, rolling behind a car and up to her feet, holstering her umbrella and sprinting along the street, arms pumping at her sides. King Monkey appeared beside her, looping on all fours for a moment, rising to two legs and taking off.

“Is she stronger?” He asked, and Bunnyx shook her head, the closest she could come to a shrug while running. She grabbed King Monkey by the wrist, and took a sharp left, jumping over the hood of a car, and springing off, letting go of King Monkey and flipping through the air, landing in a crouch, umbrella bursting open and taking the brunt of the ice shards that Climatika released. King Monkey landed behind her, pressing against her, partially on her side, partially on her shoulder, defiantly leaning on her to keep himself out of the way of the ice. “What d’we do?”

As if she had a plan. Bunnyx didn’t really plan things. She just looked at a problem and tended to know the solution. It was a gift. Her Dad called it the part of Pére that she had taken after. Her classmates either thought it was awesome, or weird. Usually, a mix of both, because Bunnyx was awesome and weird. Her therapist had stared blankly then informed her that it was her ADHD.

“Uproar?” She suggested sheepishly, and his eyes lit up. What a stupid idiot. But like, the adorable kind of stupid idiot that made her want to both smack him and hug him because he was her maybe-brother and she was the only one with the right to kill him--well, her and the rest of their maybe-siblings.

“Uproar!” He shouted.

They got a toy monkey. One of those screaming slingshot ones that Bunnyx adored but had never been allowed to own because her father figured she’d be dangerous with it--a thought that had proven to be true when Marinette brought one of her own in for Show-And-Tell. She and King Monkey had broken a few windows.

“Oh, hell yeah,” Bunnyx said, grinning. He grinned back, slotting his fingers into the slingshot part of the monkey’s hands, and taking off to the right. Bunnyx dove to the left, rolling up to her feet and sprinting across the street, holstering her umbrella back onto her back. She was pretty sure that this was the right timeline, at the very least--Fluff said she’d get better at the timeline stuff, but she wasn’t there yet.

Climatika had been Akumatized twice before. The first time had been back when Alix had still thought her watch was just a watch--a super-cool watch with a hologram feature, but a watch all the same--and when things had been kinda crazy in their class. Not that they hadn’t been crazy, since the (insert the number of students in their class, Alix couldn’t remember) had been stuck together since they’d been little kids. Their age group didn’t have that many students, and they’d just kinda…

Stayed together.

She was getting distracted again. Climatika had been Akumatized twice before, and both times, the umbrella had held the inky-black-purple butterfly. Hence, it was there again, and if not, the two of them were good enough at kicking ass to find it.

“Hey, Elsa!” She shouted, springing up, and flipping away from the icicles that smashed through windows behind her, launching into a series of springs and twist that would make any stunt lady worth her stuff clap, avoiding the new group of frozen daggers, and landing in a crouch, ready to hide behind a car. “Où as-tu ta robe ? La benne à ordures !?”

“You little--”

Lightning snapped through the air, and Bunnyx dove away, hands hitting the sidewalk. She tucked herself up, rolling over, and came up onto her feet, instantly throwing herself into another dive-roll, out onto the street, coming up from that, and into a full-tilt sprint, straight towards Climatika.

It had better be the right damn timeline.

The shriek of a recorded slingshot-monkey cut through the wind and remaining thunder, and immediately, the ice that whirled in the wind turned to confetti, the umbrella that the villain held flaring open, catching her in the nose. She shrieked, stumbling back, and Bunnyx dove for the umbrella, catching the handle in her fingers, and spinning around, to where she could expect the two late-comers to be arriving. “Chat Noir!”

“Cataclysm!”

The umbrella scattered in the wind, the Akuma flapping free, taking off into the air. A moment later it was caught and then freed. Bunnyx let out a huff, crossing her arms and jutting one hip out, the other three Holders gathering in a loose circle with her.

“Bien joué !” The four of them chimed, fist-bumping their hands together as per the tradition of winning the battle. Bunnyx relaxed her shoulders as magical bugs spread across the street--turned out Ladybug had already used her Lucky Charm, go figure--sealing cracks and mending cars and basically turning back time. Climatika switched back, and that was not something Bunnyx was equipped to deal with, today, tomorrow, or yesterday, so she let Chat Noir step towards her instead of doing it herself.

“What took you so long?” Bunnyx said, cocking her head to the side, and Ladybug groaned, rubbing her forehead in a move that was so familiarly _her_ that it would have hurt if the situation had been dire. As it was, Bunnyx knew the difference between Overreacting-Ladybug and Exhausted-Ladybug, therefore she could tell they were dealing with the second one.

“She threw cars at us. And a train. It wasn’t fun.”

“Doesn’t sound fun,” King Monkey mused, any further conversation interrupted by the trill of his Miraculous. He groaned, loudly, a different groan then the one Ladybug had used only a few moments earlier, his head tilting up in exasperation. But he gave the three of them a two-fingered salute, offered a lightning-quick goodbye, and vanished. Bunnyx lifted both hands above her head, lacing her fingers together and flexing them up and out, feeling her knuckles crack. She rolled her neck and punched one hand into her opposing palm, making her knuckles pop again before she gave her own two-fingered salute and darted away, sprinting towards the alleyway, vaulting over the fencing halfway through it, and ordering a detransformation as she dropped.

She landed on her skates, catching Fluff and offering her a carrot stick--easy recharge, nobody questioned it too much. Alix was sporty. Non-sporty people thought sporty people loved dried veggie sticks, and sporty people were familiar enough with weird diets and things that nobody questioned it.

“Good job,” she praised the kwami, whose nose twitched in amusement. It was the only interaction they managed, before she had to hide Fluff behind her back, as Nathaniel and Marc appeared at the end of the alleyway.

“Alix?” Nathaniel called, and she offered a wave. He darted down the alleyway towards her, totally forgetting about the cute boy beside him--just because she was demi didn’t mean she couldn’t appreciate people’s looks--and crashed into her. She yelped, overbalanced backwards, and landed hard on her back. The day she didn’t wear a helmet, go figure.

“Ow,” she muttered, and he rolled off of her and to the side, either realizing what sort of position they’d landed in or just feeling nice and not like crushing her. Nathaniel wasn’t heavy, but Alix was pretty small. She sat up, feeling Fluff hide in the mess of her hair, and accepted Marc’s somewhat hesitant hand up, dragging Nathaniel up afterwards. “Dude, we need to work on your hugs.”

He ducked his head, hiding a blush, and she punched him in the arm, gently, before grabbing his elbow, and dragging him, and Marc, who she also grabbed by the elbow, towards the street. “C’mon, I want ice cream. That was the plan anyway, at least, before lightning tried to kill us.”

“We were going for ice cream?”

“Of course we were going for ice cream,” Alix scoffed, letting go of them, and giving Nataniel a small shove to get him going, catching the grin he wore, “Ice cream makes everything better.”

**Author's Note:**

> So, these aren't going to be posted linearly. But, we will make an effort to kind of explain where they fit into the timeline? The general idea is that the class is more like Found Family and they're also the MLB Team. They know each other's identities--not off the bat, but they've learned them over time--and so here, Alix knows who Kim/KM is, as does Nathaniel, and vice versa, even though we don't explicitly say that.
> 
> Jess -- The French is from me. Basically, it's just asking if Climatika got her dress out of a trash can, and then the usual celebrational chant, which, for those interested, translates to something similar to "well played" or "good game". I've been watching MLB in French because school moved online (again, _sacrement_ ), and that means that I need to get my French practice in. Also, Climatika sounds _way_ better than "Stormy Weather". What is that, some kind of body spray???
> 
> Phi -- I do not speak French, and any French skills I accumulated through the two years I spent taking it in middle school went down the drain when I had to switch to Italian when I switched schools. Whoops. I essentially acted as a beta for this one, but I do plan on writing for this AU in the future because this fandom needs more platonic love. 
> 
> [Discord Server Link](https://discord.gg/gHwYjHufcz)
> 
> [Phi/m3owww's Tumblr](https://m3owww.tumblr.com/)
> 
> [Jess/js71's Tumblr](https://js71.tumblr.com/)


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